28 February 2023
Two World Wheelchair Championships begin Saturday in Richmond, Canada
The World Wheelchair and World Wheelchair Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2023 will take place at the Richmond Curling Centre in British Columbia, Canada from 4–12 March.
This will be the 16th edition of the team competition and the second edition of the mixed doubles event.
Team competition
Teams
The participating 12 mixed teams are hosts Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Norway, Scotland, Sweden and United States.
China are the reigning world and Paralympic champions, who won the KUNTAI World Wheelchair Curling Championship 2021 on home ice in Beijing.
Sweden won silver medals at the most recent world championship and Paralympic Games while hosts, Canada are the Paralympic bronze medallists.
Czech Republic, Denmark and Germany qualified for the event by finishing on the podium at the World Wheelchair-B Curling Championship in November 2022 held in Lohja, Finland.
Schedule
Round-robin play starts on Saturday 4 March and continues until Thursday 9 March.
The top six teams after the round robin advance to the play-off stage.
Teams ranked first and second progress directly to the semi-finals. The third-ranked team will play the sixth-ranked team in one qualification game, while the fourth-ranked team will meet the fifth-ranked team in the other qualification game. Both qualification games will take place on Friday 10 March at 13:00. The winners of these games complete the semi-final field.
The semi-finals will be played on Saturday 11 March at 14:00. The winners of the semi-finals will play for the gold medals and the world title, while the losers of these games will meet for the bronze medals. Both medal games will take place on Sunday 12 March at 10:00.
Click here for the full playing schedule.
Mixed doubles competition
Teams
Altogether 19 teams representing their national Member Associations will compete at the event. Divided into two round-robin groups, the teams are:
Group A: China, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Scotland, Slovakia, Switzerland and United States
Group B: Canada, Denmark, England, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia and Sweden.
Sweden are the reigning champions who won the inaugural title in May 2022. Hungary took silver medals. Both Member Associations will send new teams to this event.
The bronze medal-winning Norwegian team from 2022, Rune Lorentsen and Rikke Iversen, will try to reach the podium at this event as well.
Schedule
Round-robin play starts on Saturday 4 March and continues until Friday 10 March.
The top teams of each group progress directly to the semi-finals. The teams ranked second and third in each group play in qualification games on Saturday 11 March at 9:00. The winners of these games advance to the semi-finals. Both semi-finals will take place on 11 March at 19:00.
The winners of the semi-finals will play in the gold medal game, the losers of the semi-finals will meet in the bronze medal game. Both medal games will take place on Sunday 12 March at 14:30.
Click here for the full playing schedule.
All times are PST (Pacific Standard Time) which is Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) -8 hours.
Curl BC will be broadcasting select feature games on the Curling Channel.
The broadcast schedule for the event is available here.
Curl BC will provide an international live stream of static camera footage on their YouTube channel.
Engage with the World Curling Federation in the lead up to the World Wheelchair Curling Championship and World Wheelchair Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2023 on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Weibo and by searching the hashtags #WWhCC2023 #WWhMDCC2023 and #wheelchaircurling
